Perfect World has been “very supportive” of Torchlight and Runic’s MMO ambitions

Runic Games co-founder and CEO Max Schaefer has said the firm chose Perfect World Entertainment as its partner for the Torchlight MMO due to the Chinese company’s experience with the genre.

Speaking with VentureBeat, Schaefer said when he an his brother Eric fist started Runic, the duo were unsure what form the company was going to take, so they self-funded the venture and started searching for which company “would be the best partner.”

“At the time our notion was to build an MMO and, in evaluating partners, who would help us make an MMO, because we’re a small company and we couldn’t run an MMO out of this office,” he said. “We needed a partner who could help us with the infrastructure, operations, customer support, billing and all that.

“It seemed that Perfect World is the best alignment for us because of the MMOs they run in China, the numbers that they deal with are incredible. They really understand how to run these games efficiently and they have a lot of expertise in itemization.”

Schaefer said Runic, like Perfect World, are devotees of the free-to-play MMO model, therefore the two firms partnering was the “best mix” for both.

“They also wanted us to operate pretty much autonomously and we were able to strike a really good deal,” he continued. “Even though we haven’t made an MMO yet, they’ve been very supportive of us. Since Torchlight has been a success and we’re making money as a company, they’re very happy with that.”

Back in September, Perfect World said had the Torchlight MMO scheduled or either a late 2012 or early 2013 release; however, at this time there hasn’t been a definite release window announced.